Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
As wildfires rage throughout parts of Canada, one fire in particular is highlighting concerns about so-called "zombie fires."
Authorities in the Northwest Territories are monitoring a large fire that has flared up after remaining dormant underground during the winter months.
Fires that persist through the winter in Canada were once considered a rare phenomenon, but experts warn these events are becoming more common as temperatures get warmer and less snow falls.
According to the BC Wildfire Service, a "zombie fire" – more commonly known as an overwintering fire or a holdover fire – occurs when a wildfire that burned deep underground in the previous year has continued to smoulder all winter long.
The agency warns these "residual hot spots" can re-emerge with the onset of warmer, dry weather in the spring.
Jennifer Baltzer, an associate professor of biology at Wilfrid Laurier University and Canada Research Chair in forests and global change, told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on Monday "zombie fires" smouldering in the biomass, such as the roots and bowls of trees or in peat soils, of the affected landscape.
Such phenomena can cause wildfire season to begin sooner than expected and last longer, she said. Baltzer added that overwintering fires also have the potential to cause much larger changes and carbon losses in the ecosystem than an ordinary wildfire.
"A single-season fire burns through the season and then ends, whereas a smoldering fire continues to combust wood and peat soils throughout the winter -- very, very slowly -- but we continue to see combustion throughout the winter," Baltzer said.
According to a 2021 study, overwintering fires generally accounted for a small amount (about one per cent) of the total burned area in the Northwest Territories and Alaska between 2022 and 2018.
However, researchers out of the University Amsterdam and the University of Alaska Fairbanks found there was a "surprising" increase in the number of overwintering fires reported in individual years.
In Alaska, for example, overwintering fires accounted for 38 per cent of the burned landscape during the 2008 wildfire season, according to the study.
Experts suggest "zombie fires" could become more common due to climate change, as hot, dry conditions associated with heavy fire years can lead this deep burning of carbon-rich biomass.
A study published in 2019 found increasing summer temperatures associated with climate warming may promote the survival of overwintering fires in the future, threatening boreal regions including the sub-Arctic, Arctic, Northwest Territories and the northern areas in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Baltzer, who is leading a team of researchers in collecting field data on "zombie fires" in the Northwest Territories, hopes to further analyze how these fires affect carbon loss and forest regeneration in Canada.
Baltzer explained shrubs that recover quickly from wildfires can do this because of underground plant systems. However, "zombie fires" damage these systems as well as seed beds for trees, which "inhibit reproduction and recolonization of these sites" post-fire, she said.
"This is a concern is because of the changing fire activity in Boreal forests," Baltzer said. "High latitude systems are warming at about three to four times the rate of the planet… And this really rapid warming is causing these systems to be more flammable… [resulting in] larger areas burned, more severe fires and more frequent fires."
Baltzer said overwintering fires are "inherently linked with climate change," as they become more prevalent following years that see increased wildfire activity, which is steadily rising amid global warming.
With this in mind, Baltzer said preventing "zombie fires" will require a reduction of fossil fuel emissions to slow the overall production of greenhouse gases driving global warming.
While Baltzer acknowledges this requires a global effort and is beyond the scope of her research team, she says they are working to provide fire managers with information to support an enhanced understanding of where "zombie fires" are in Canada to help inform the understanding of the behaviour of theses fires and how to respond.
See the map showing wildfires burning across North America, provided by ESRI Canada, full screen
With files from The Canadian Press
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.